The best books I read in 2015.

January 6, 2016

Good morning, my darlings!

As I confessed last year, I read a great many more books than I ever manage to review. Sometimes it’s because I can’t think of anything to say, sometimes it’s because I would just rather read another book instead of writing about the one I just finished.

So in Rainbow Rowell’s book Fangirl(a superfavorite of mine) the main character is writing an epic fanfiction novel about a Harry Potter-esque character that exists in her world, named Simon Snow. Carry On is a real book that Rainbow Rowell wrote to tell the story that Cath was writing about the doubly fictional Simon Snow in Fangirl.

I don’t mind telling you that I was skeptical about Carry On – I wasn’t convinced it could turn out as something worth standing on its own. But I love love love loved it. I’m going to buy my own copy and read it a hundred times.

I loved the first book of this series, but found numbers 2 and 3 to be less amazing (still good, though). This is the fourth and final book in the series, and it was so amazing that it made love the rest of it even more.

I usually love Tessa Dare’s romances, but this one is extra amazing. I just read it for a second time and I’m pretty sure I need to own it. It’s a heaping helping of glorious nonsense. Warning: contains sex.

It’s so boring of me to recommend a book that everyone’s already talking about (this was Obama’s favorite book of 2015) but I can’t deny that Groff hit it out of the park on this one. Raw and beautiful.

When I reviewed this, I gave it a 7/10 . I actually was really surprised when I went back and saw that – I would definitely rate it higher now, based on how it’s stayed with me (and how much I liked the author when I met him at Book Riot Live). This book is something unique, and that matters.

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Comments

For a few years I have been savoring books of a nautical theme: “The Captain’s Wife” by Douglas Kelly, is a beautiful recreation of a historical event during thetwilight of the golden age of sailing. It’s the kind of book that draws you in, and makes the characters dear to you; their fears and triumphs become your own. It’s a beautiful story of love, romance, steely nerves, and the guts to lead and survive in circumstances that most would find paralizing. The ending absolutely destroyed me (in a good way…like the ending of The Gladiator) and the fact that these were actual, living people in the 1800s really made the history intreaguing.

My other favorite nautical books are nonfiction, but still fascinating. Some, like “Deadliest Sea” by Kalee Thompson and “Coming Back Alive” by Spike Walker, kept me on the edge of my seat–where I snapped at anyone crasy enough to interrupt–as the sagas of Coast Guard rescues in the Bering Sea or Gulf of Alaska unfolded on the pages. These books really gave me an appreciation of the amazingly heroic work those men and women in the USCG execute in the most appauling weather.

Lydia Lepic, I can relate because I love to collect books and one of the sections of my library has become several books about boating… my favorite being “THE GREATEST SAILING STORIES EVER TOLD” subtitled “TWENTY-SEVEN UNFORGETTABLE STORES” and edited by Christopher Caswell!!